This invention relates to computer memory, and more particularly, phase change memory cells.
There are two major groups in computer memory: non-volatile memory and volatile memory. Constant input of energy in order to retain information is not necessary in non-volatile memory but is required in the volatile memory. Examples of non-volatile memory devices are Read Only Memory (ROM), Flash Electrical Erasable Read Only Memory, Ferroelectric Random Access Memory, Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM), and Phase Change Memory (PCM); non-volatile memory devices being memory in which the state of the memory elements can be retained for days to decades without power consumption. Examples of volatile memory devices include Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and Static Random Access Memory (SRAM); where DRAM requires the memory element to be constantly refreshed while SRAM requires a constant supply of energy to maintain the state of the memory element. The present invention is directed to phase change memory. In phase change memory, information is stored in materials that can be manipulated into different phases. Each of these phases exhibit different electrical properties which can be used for storing information. The amorphous and crystalline phases are typically two phases used for bit storage (1's and 0's) since they have detectable differences in electrical resistance. Specifically, the amorphous phase has a higher resistance than the crystalline phase.
Chalcogenides are a group of materials commonly utilized as phase change material. This group of materials contain a chalcogen (Periodic Table Group 16/VIA) and another element. Selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te) are the two most common semiconductors in the group used to produce a chalcogenide when creating a phase change memory cell. An example of this would be Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST), SbTe, and In2Se3.
In phase change memory, the heat necessary to drive a change between states in the phase change material propagates to adjacent materials. Heat propagating into adjacent memory cells may cause thermal cross-talk and errors in bit storage.
Phase change memory cell designs also attempt to minimize the area of each cell in order to maximize the density of the memory arrays. As the density increases, neighboring PCM cells become closer and closer and heat propagation into adjacent memory cells become a concern. Thus it is desirable to channel the heat away from the adjacent memory cells.